I would like some pointers for designing games.

I've been playing it for about 6months.. yes I know kinda sad..
But I needed something to take my mind of World Of Warcraft that I quit after a few years played.

Either way back to the point.
A friend of mine made his own game.. wasn't a great success but it was working well.

I would like to know:

-How long would it take to code/make a simple game like that?
-Where I could actually start making a website for the game?
-Any websites/forum topics/books I could find that will teach me how to code.
-Any other information I should be aware of.. What I might need etc.

Anything would help so please help me everything would be muchly appreciated.

First of all, I must announce my bias, I loathe text-based adventures.
Now to help:
1)text based games are relatively easy to code, no graphics or mega math involved, so about 6 months for someone like me (limited time, one person, other things to do)
But for many, probably less.
2)Woah, hold on there, wait 'till the game's done then do the promotions.
Dont make hype over a game that may not be finished.
Been there, done that worse.
::Grits teeth and looks back::
3) Reasonably separate as much as possible to allow more reusablity.
Others can give better advice than me on this one, I just noticed your thread wasn't getting much notice.

Welcome to iDevGames. You are about to learn some hard truths but if you stick with the community you can be up and writing games in no time at all.

First off, a lot of people want their first project to be something huge, I am impressed you didn't select a MMOLRPG at least. A text based adventure game is not outside the bounds for a new programmer, but it will be difficult. As always I suggest start with very small simple programs to get the hang of programming.

Moving on. You will need to figure out whether you want this to be a desktop based game or a web based game. From the sounds of it you are looking for a webpage based game (The site you linked doesn't provide much info except to login or create an account). Either way you are going to have to learn to program, don't worry it is not that bad.

You are going to need to pick what language you want to use there are hundreds to choose from. Some of the more popular ones for web programming of this nature would be Python, PHP, and Java. I am not a web programmer so I can't help you much beyond here, but the best thing you can do is start googling those languages I gave you, pick one and start learning.

hey adrian! welcome to iDevGames hope you like everyone here but back to topic

Congratulations! your the first person that didn't just start by wanting to make a MMORPG you should be proud! =]

so for your first question: for me (i go to school from 7:10 - 3:30 then i go to work, etc. i come home at around 6:30 - 8:00, my pc crashes 10 times every week and i go to bed at 1:30 because i've been making games, which leaves me around 7 - 5 hours of development/coding/designing each day) would take about 6 - 7 months ( yes it takes that long to make a game!) but if you're a absolute beginner then it would take you 5 - 6 months to learn to code, then another 3 - 4 months to learn a game development library and then 7 - 9 months to actually make the game.

for your second question: wow man websites?!?!? if you're looking at something totally CSS with php and mySQL for login and register PLUS the basic HTML for it all i'd say the website (if you want something awesome like http://www.idevgames.com) would take around
9 - 10 months (learning all the languages will take 5 - 6 months then finding a good and reliable domain name will take 1 - 2 months then finnally finding a reliable webhost and uploading the website to the internet would take 2 - 3 months, and there are always errors as you know... ) but if you wanted a cheap layout like google or something i'd say around 5 - 7 months because you really only need to learn HTML and PHP. But this is all assuming that you were to do it by hand with a text editor to make the process a little quicker i'd recommend buying Dreamweaver. It'd really speed up the process of designing the site. Really what i recommend would be to forget about the website for now and just focus on the game, but if you really want a website now then just get a friend or a web designer to do it.

for you third question: man i wish i knew some good books but sadly i don't really the best option for this is to go to your local bookstore and tell the people that work there EXACTLY what you want and they'll probrably help ya out but first though i'd recommend researching on the web: (for the website design) HTML,CSS and maybe javascript.
(for desktop game programming on the windows) C++,C and Java i think should work.
(for desktop game programming on the mac) Objective C++/C, C++, C and i think that's the languages for the mac though i'm not sure, i heard about something called Cocoa or something. (for web game programming) Flash Actionscript 2.0/3.0, Java always works and Flex sometimes helps. I use: (for websites) HTML,CSS,PHP and sometimes javascript (for windows desktop game programming) C++ (for web games) Flash Actionscript 2.0.

and finally your last question:
the stuff that you need to make a desktop game: your main language (C++,C,Objective C++/C, Java) a game library to fit that language (SDL,OpenGL,Allegro,etc.) a compiler that can run your languages/libraries (Dev-C++,CodeBlocks,etc.) and a graphics API (if your gonna make 3D games)(OpenGL,etc.)

stuff that you need for a web game:a program with your language (Flash 8/CS3/CS4, Flex 3,etc.)and i think that's it...

stuff that you need for a website:your languages (CSS,HTML,Javascript,PHP,etc.) and i do think that's it...

well really that's all i can help you with i'd recommend you research more on everything i've just stated since i've only covered the most very basics and please excuse my english (i'm from brasil and so english is my second language) if you found it hard to understand.

and by the way hope you like everyone on the site and that you enjoy iDevgames